DARK WELL

December 02, 2015


Dark Well Entrance
After making some life changes which equated to free up more time, I decided to head down to TAG for an undetermined amount of time to visit friends and go caving.  I loaded up the car with diving, caving, climbing, and camping equipment than headed down south 10 hours Steve Davis's house near South Pittsburg.  I made it to Steves house around 8pm and was greeted by Josh Schultz, Steve, Lee White, and Steve's affectionate pup.  We discussed our options that we had and what we were going to get involved with and decided to visit Dark Well. 
Drop 4 Dark Well
We ate breakfast and drove over to the Paint Rock area through the meandering roads which did not agree with our stomachs to much, especially mine. for some reason I was getting car sick which never happens and consequently felt like crap until we got to the parking lot of paint rock.
Traverse Passage in Dark Well
After a few mis orientations and backing up on roads, we made it to the parking lot and took a brief break before heading up the hill. The Hike was casual and typical TAG hiking till we reached the entrance of Dark Well
Last drop where I threw up in Dark Well
The Drop had a walk in cavern entrance which we rigged and re directed into the first pit which was around 100 ft with a few ledges to stop at along the way.  The drop was pretty straightforward multi drop material with a waterfall raining down on you as you rapped to the bottom of the drop.  The  Cave reminded me of Water Well.
Back mountain room beyond the traverse Dark Well
We get to the next rig point and I set up a rebelay on a shady looking bolt that took us down another 50ft. to a third drop of around 10ft. the water was moving pretty good at this point and we quickly came to a forth drop that we threw the rope down in which took us to the bottom of the rope.
Back mountain room beyond the traverse Dark Well
To our right were a few dome rooms that we traversed around and to our left was continuing passage that took us into a room with another 100ft pit and a large drop where the water was flowing over.
Climbing up the Third Drop, Dark Well
Josh went back to get the traverse line and I ended up throwing up twice, making sure it was in the water and flowing over the edge as my sickness and dizziness caught up to me...We continued on caving and I rigged a traverse line so we could walk around the pit into the large room in the back. Can't let a little vomit and dizziness stop the trip especially when we are this far back into it.
Climbing up the second drop, Dark Well
We popped into this main room and it was quite impressive to see as the break down pile was prob around 75 ft to the ceiling.  There were a few more drops ahead of us but we decided to turn around and exit the cave.
Top of the first drop Dark Well
We worked our way out of the cave with no incident and de rigged in the sub freezing temps wet which took us into the night cold to the bone. We get to the car and leave for home only to find out that Josh had to go k to get his harness which he ended up finding in the field frozen to the ground!! great first day in TAG! 
Entrance of Dark Well

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2 comments

  1. Awesome pics, Adam! Those setbacks just made the trip more entertaining to talk about.

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  2. thank you, yes they did and it was one hell of an adjustment :) I am glad we got to get this experience :)

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